In Over my Head...

Yesterday seemed to be the big day for challenging myself. I am not quite sure how well I handled the challenges.

I have been saying lately that I want to take a language course to improve my French. I take that back. I am now saying that I want to take a language course to learn some French. See, yesterday was the day for the French language level test. Even though it is 6 years since I last spoke a word of French, I didn't fear the test too much. I had the French books from high school in my bag, and after work I went to a French cafe - secretly hoping that the atmosphere, the cafe au lait, and the fairly close presence of the grammar books would whipe away the devestating effect the last six years have had on my language skills, and that it would all come back to me in mysterious ways. That is what you call wishful thinking. And let me tell you something; it doesn't work!

I showed up for the test convinced that it would take max 20 minutes, and be the type where you checked box a, b, or c - whichever one seemed more likely or convenient. Then the test started. Everything was of course in French, but I understood that the test would consist of four parts. EH?? Part one - dictation. Auch! Part two - crossing of boxes. OK, "prepared" for that. Part three - write an essay. WHAT?? AUCH! (could it get any worse? Oh yes it could..) Part four - conversation with the teacher, one at a time. AAAAAAAAAAAUCH! OK, so I can understand some things, but I have no words to answer with, except "tres bien" and "merci". And the teacher didn't speak a word of English (or so she said at least). The whole thing took almost two hours. And the result didn't make me very optimistic. Apparently, my written stuff is "pas mal", but the oral part was crappy. No, she didn't say crappy, but she would have if she was less polite. Maybe she even did say it, I only understood half of what she said anyway. I wonder what I have gotten myself into. But I really want to learn French. Wouldn't it be great if I could just snap my fingers, and voila - it was already there?